Tartlets with lemon curd and poached pear

Oh my God, it seems this post is gonna be full of self-doubt thoughts about me as a photographer.
Recently I’ve decided to make photos with a digital camera rather than rely on my iPhone shooting skills, and life will never be the same!

Now I spend days thinking — where does all the daylight disappear right after I’ve styled a shot? should my photos for the blog be vertical or horizontal? why even Lightroom has to have so many options? and other ridiculous questions. So if you ever feel bored or need a boost of emotions (on both ends of spectrum) in your life, learning a new skill serves this demand pretty well 🙂

And the minute of complain is over, thanks for listening to me! After all, these quaint tartlets don’t deserve to collect dust in my head just because I cannot (yet!) photoshoot them properly. These small tartlets holding whole poached pear filled with lemon curd merit to be made.

* the idea of decoration is from Niksya blog

For the dough:

250 g flour
150 g cold butter, cut into pieces
95 g powdered sugar
3 g salt
30 g almond flour (unblanched in this case, but both works well)
50 g whole egg (1 egg usually does the job)

To make dough follow instructions from Cooper’s recipe. You can make 1/2 of the recipe.

For the lemon curd:

150 ml lemon juice
2 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
100 g sugar
zest of 2 lemons
55 g unsalted butter

In a heatproof bowl combine sugar and lemon zest, rub thoroughly with fingers and let it sit for 30 minutes.

After half an hour, fill a medium pot with water and bring it to simmer. Add eggs yolks, eggs and lemon juice to sugar/zest mixture and place the bowl over the pot with simmering water. Cook the cream constantly whisking until mixture thickens. Remove the pot from the heat and continue to whisk it to cool the curd down a bit.

Whisk in the pieces of butter so they melt into the curd and create an emulsion. Transfer the cream to a glass jar and when it’s completely cold place the jar in refrigerator.

For the poached pears:

4 firm pears, peeled and cored
1 liter of water
juice and zest of one lemon
200 g sugar
stick of cinnamon

In a large pot combine water, sugar, lemon juice and zest, cinnamon stick. Heat the mixture until sugar is dissolved. Place the cored pears in the pot and cover with circle of parchment paper. This will prevent pears from popping over the water and making them dark.

Cook pears on a low heat for 15-20 minutes or until they’re cooked through. Remove the pot from the heat and let the pears cool in the liquid.

Once all ingredients are ready, it’s time to assemble pastries:

Remove pears from the liquid and dry them with paper towel. Transfer lemon curd to a pastry bag. Fill baked tartlet shells and middle of the pears with lemon curd, and then place pears into the shells. Finally, decorate border of the tarts with pieces of raw unsalted pistachios. Better enjoyed within 1-2 hours after making.

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Do you like tarts, my friends? I hope the answer is YES, and you’ll enjoy all-tarts-everything coming your way 😉